Man gets probation for bomb threat at Bethlehem IRS

December 02, 2011|By Riley Yates, Of The Morning Call

As he left his latest frustrating encounter with the IRS office in Bethlehem, Leonard C. Mackey had a few choice words for the guard who had earlier asked him whether he had any guns, knives or weapons.

"You didn't ask about bombs, we keep those in the basement," said the 64-year-old Easton man, prompting a scare Feb. 28 in which the building at 3 W. Broad St. was evacuated and searched for explosives.

Years ago, those kinds of comments may have been laughed off, and certainly wouldn't have produced the drama they did, Northampton County Judge Leonard Zito said at sentencing Friday.

"This would have been an overreaction. No one would have taken you seriously," Zito said. "It's a different world, and that's what you failed to recognize.

"Do I think you're a dangerous person? No."

Mackey, who pleaded guilty to felony terroristic threats, escaped with a sentence of 15 months of probation despite a lengthy prior record from more than 25 years ago. He must also get a psychological examination and pay $2,358 to the Bethlehem Fire Department for the cost of its response.

Police said talking about bombs aren't the only hostile words Mackey had that day.

To an employee, Mackey said that if he had any extra money, he would build a monument to the guy who blew up the IRS building in Texas, according to court records. That's an apparent reference to Andrew J. Stack III of Austin, Texas, who smashed a small aircraft into a federal building Feb 18, 2010, killing himself and one other.

Defense attorney Joshua Fulmer said Mackey had spent the better part of a year battling with the IRS over a mistake the agency made on the taxes he and his wife owed.

The IRS had claimed the couple had more income than they actually did, and they received harassing letter after harassing letter about it, Fulmer said.

Fulmer said that after dealing with multiple levels of the bureaucracy, Mackey was able to get the problem resolved, receiving a memo from the IRS indicating it had made an error.

But the collection letters kept coming, Mackey misplaced his memo, and he went to the office to get another copy of it, Fulmer said.

"It was just an emotional situation," Mackey told Zito. "I made some inappropriate comments."